23 Mar Philips for Kids

Philips Sonicare for Kids Electric Brush with Soft Bristles

If you’re a parent you probably worry about how well your kids are brushing their teeth every single day. For most parents it’s a constant battle trying to talk their kids into scrubbing properly, and in our household it is no different. We usually try to make it into some kind of fun game that includes humming a song as our child brushes, but it’s still a constant battle. We’ve tried basic electric toothbrushes with fun cartoon handles and had some success with them, but these cheap toothbrushes aren’t overly effective and they still leave me concerned for our child’s dental health.

As I looked around for an alternative I came across the Philips Sonicare for Kids Connected Sonic Electric Toothbrush, which offers Philips revolutionary sonic-powered tooth brushing capability for your children. Best of all, these toothbrushes are very reasonably priced. When you try something new with a child you don’t want to spend a fortune as you don’t know how successful it will be.

Fun Connectivity

When you want to get a child to do something that’s good for them it’s helpful if you can make it fun as well, and that’s part of the attraction of this product. It’s accompanied by a free interactive app that encourages your kids to brush in a fun and exciting way. When they complete their brushing task they achieve milestones and are awarded for their efforts. This is designed to motivate your kids to want to brush their teeth, instead of having to fight them every step of the way.

The best thing about this app is that it lets you educate your kids and have a little fun in the process as well. When you try to force on a child something they don’t enjoy, they will almost always push back. But if you turn it into a fun activity the chances are they won’t resist you, and you’ll see a notable difference in their attitudes towards brushing their teeth.

Perhaps the coolest part about this Sonicare product for kids is that it can actually connect directly with your smartphone via Bluetooth. Once you sync the device with the app, which can be found in the App Store, you can then easily track your child’s brushing habits. They can also see their own progress, which is how they achieve the awards mentioned above. It’s a very modern application of a simple task, but one that kids can relate to.

Specially Designed for Small Mouths

Children’s teeth are a lot more sensitive than those of adults, so the design of an electric toothbrush has to take this fact into account. The Philips Sonicare for Kids is smaller than the adult version of Sonicare to comfortably fit inside a child’s mouth, and the brush’s bristles are softer so that they don’t hurt sensitive gums.

Building Habits for Life

As adults we are aware that each brushing session should last about two minutes; these brushing sessions should be further divided into four different quadrants, on which you should spend about 30 seconds each. Children haven’t learned that yet, but with the Sonicare for Kids Brush and its built-in KidTimer, they are encouraged to learn. The brush also has something called the KidPacer, which prompts the child to move from quadrant to quadrant as they brush. Kids learn best by building habits, and this brush is designed to help them learn the right ones.

Some Criticisms

It’s rare to find a product with universal appeal, but this one comes close. Of the few people that were critical of this Philips product, most of them simply didn’t like the gimmicky nature of the Bluetooth connectivity and apps. That seems more like an individual choice to me, but everyone’s entitled to their opinion.

The other thing that some customers did complain about with this product was that it didn’t last long enough. In some cases customers actually claimed that the brush stopped working after a couple of months. If that’s true it’s definitely something to be concerned about, but it seems like most people didn’t have this type of experience with this brush.

Kids Friendly

After taking a close look at the Philips Sonicare for Kids, I’m convinced it’s a great product and I’m pretty sure it’s going to find its way into our household. Our kids love anything that interacts with a smartphone or tablet, so I’m confident this will help us in trying to get them to brush regularly. One can only hope!